“With collaborations with the Harlem School of the Arts, Harlem Opera Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem Chamber Players, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (just to name a few), Harlem Chamber Players are bringing more people of color into the classical music arena,” writes Njeri McPherson in Thursday’s (9/26) Amsterdam News (New York, N.Y.). Clarinetist Liz Player, the Harlem Chamber Players’ executive and creative director, “was inspired to start Harlem Chamber Players because she realized that in most cases she was the only African American in the orchestras she participated in…. It wasn’t until she performed with New York City Housing Authority Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra predominantly for Black and Latinx musicians, that she would be inspired by what an orchestra could be. It was also here that Player met violist Charles Dalton. Player and Dalton would together go on to create a summer music festival in 2008 meant to bring classical music to West Harlem, and this event would be the catalyst for the Harlem Chamber Players.” Says Player, “It is important for young people to see people who look like them in a professional, high-quality orchestra.”
Posted September 30, 2019
